By Alan Carasso
American Horse of the Year Azeri (Jade Hunter) and Grade I winner Laragh (Tapit) were responsible for the first two home in a 2000-meter turf maiden Saturday afternoon at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan. Both 3-year-old colts were sired by champion sire Deep Impact (Jpn).
Favored at 3-2 in the day's fifth race was Admire Azeri (Jpn), who topped the 2014 JRHA Select Foal Sale (catalogue page) on a bid of ¥250 million (about US$2,450,981) from Riichi Kondo and who debuted with a strong runner-up effort over a grassy 1800 meters at Hanshin on Christmas Eve. Laragh's son Glenmacnass (Jpn) was second in the markets at 5-2 while cutting back in distance off a debut third going the metric mile and a half on his Feb. 26 at this venue.
Glenmacnass jumped well from gate four and was allowed a reasonably soft time of it on the engine, while Christophe Lemaire had the race favorite slightly worse than midfield out of the stretch for the first time and about three off the inside, a result of his double-digit draw. Glenmacnass led around the final turn going well, but Lemaire went for Admire Azeri at the 600-meter mark, and the duo accelerated sharply, albeit about six deep off the final corner. The chalk set his sights on the pacesetter with a furlong to travel and readily reeled him in to score by 1 1/4 lengths (video). The pair pulled 3 1/2 lengths clear of the third.
Horse of the Year in 2002 and for three straight seasons (2002-2004) the Eclipse Award-winning older female, Azeri was bought back on a bid of $4.4 million in foal to Ghostzapper at the 2009 Keeneland January, then sold to Katsumi Yoshida for $2.25 million in foal to Distorted Humor at that year's Keeneland November sale. Her three foals to sell at the JRHA Select Sale have fetched a combined ¥570 million (about US$5.8 million), including Admire Azeri's year-older full-brother Leukerbad (Jpn), who topped the 2013 foal sale on a bid of ¥240 million (US$2.37 million). The latter is a four-time winner from 10 starts and multiple Group 3 placed.
Azeri's two most recent foals, a 2-year-old colt by Deep Impact and a yearling filly by that sire, have not been offered at public auction, and she is due to the stallion again in 2017. The family is also live on this side of the world, as Azeri's GSP daughter Arienza (Giant's Causeway) is the dam of a Tapit filly that was purchased by Larry Best's OXO Equine for $1.1 million at this week's OBS March Sale.
Laragh was the winner of the 2008 GI Hollywood Starlet S. and added the Edgewood S. at three before selling to Shadai Farm for $850,000 at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. In addition to Glenmacnass, Laragh is the dam of fillies of 2015 and 2016 by Horse of the Year Orfevre (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) and most recently visited 2013 G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Kizuna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). None of her produce has been offered at auction.
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